BEN BUTLER | 5 OCTOBER 2015

Uber rival GoCatch has inked a deal with Qantas’s frequent flyer scheme as the taxi hailing app considers expansion following the legalisation of ride-sharing in the ACT.

From today, GoCatch users will receive points from the Qantas scheme when they use the app to book and pay for taxi trips costing more than $10.

GoCatch chief executive Ned Moorfield told The Australian the deal was exclusive for six months, locking other booking services and Uber out of the 10.8 million-member Qantas scheme.

Last November, Qantas’s key domestic competitor, Virgin, announced a frequent flyer hook-up with Uber but pulled out within days following a backlash from the taxi industry and consumers.

Uber remains illegal in all states and territories of Australia except the ACT, which last week said that from the end of this month it would allow the UberX service, where drivers use their own cars to ferry passengers, and slash taxi and hire-car licence fees. Mr Moorfield said the ACT’s deregulation of the industry was “a positive thing” but warned the local government needed to enforce the new rules.

PATRICK DURKIN | 7 SEPTEMBER 2015

Taxi booking app goCatch has signed a deal with ASX-listed Mint Payments to hijack the lucrative payments market from start-up rival Ingogo and major incumbent Cabcharge.

The partnership means that Mint and goCatch, backed by prominent investors including Malcolm Turnbull’s son Alex Turnbull, SEEK co-founder Paul Bassat, fund manager David Paradice and venture capital firm Square Peg, which is backed by billionaire James Packer, will capture a share of revenue from taxis hailed from the street or taxi rank, rather than using an app.

“Roughly half of all taxi jobs in Australia are hailed from the street or taxi rank, representing a big opportunity for goCatch to monetise payments for these journeys,” goCatch chief executive Ned Moorfield told The Australian Financial Review.

Listed taxi giant Cabcharge has already seen its taxi service fees cut to $90 million, after regulation in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia to half the 10 per cent surcharge applied on credit and debit card transactions for taxi trips.

JOHN MCDULING | 25 AUGUST 2015

However, creating the types of companies that will dominate the future of commerce from a country like Australia is no easy feat.

Take Sydney-based taxi booking app goCatch​​, which is backed by some of the country’s most prominent investors, including Alex Turnbull (the son of federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull), Seek co-founder Paul Bassat, small cap fund manager David Paradice, Square Peg, a technology venture capital firm backed by billionaire James Packer, and Tank Stream Ventures.

Last week, goCatch hit a significant milestone: more than 2 million taxi rides have been ordered using the app.

DAVID WASHINGTON | 5 MAY 2015

Taxi booking innovator GoCatch has supported a State Government review of the industry calling for the removal of “expensive” regulation and the freeing up of types of vehicles allowed to operate as taxis and chauffeured GoCatch – an app that allows passengers to book directly with taxi drivers – is used by about 900 taxi drivers in Adelaide, allowing them to take bookings outside the normal taxi network systems.

The company’s Sydney-based CEO, University of Adelaide graduate Ned Moorfield, said he welcome the wholesale review, exclusively reported by InDaily last week.

He said taxis were one of the least customer-focused industries in Australia and a shake-up was needed.

Moorfield was particularly critical of South Australian regulation, which he said imposed unnecessary costs that were passed on to customers.

OMNICHANNEL MEDIA | PUBLISHED: 20 MARCH 2015

This week OmniChannel Media caught up with one of Australia’s leading innovators in Ned Moorfield, CEO from the Australian taxi booking service GoCatch.

As governments grapple with what to do about the contentious issue of ride sharing, goCatch, the first entrant into the Australian taxi app booking market, continues to go from strength to strength in the $5.4 billion taxi market.

In this interview Ned explores the core principles of disruption and showcases how GoCatch has helped to bring the taxi industry into the 21st century. Ned also provides some unique insights into the role of regulators on industry and business, suggesting that regulators should not create barriers to entry.

Ned co-founded goCatch in 2011 because he wanted to use innovative technology to shake up a stuffy industry. Ned graduated in Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Adelaide. He then went on to Canada, Germany, England and Ireland, where he worked in advanced manufacturing and investment banking before returning to Australia in 2006.

FINANCIAL REVIEW | PUBLISHED: 20 OCT 2014 00:05:00

On Friday, some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs and rich-list families backed an equity raising of taxi booking and payments app goCatch in the race to “break apart” the country’s powerful $5.4 billion taxi industry.

Some of the backers of the business include billionaire family the Kahlbetzers, the Millner family, fund manager David Paradice, Malcolm Turnbull’s son, Alex, and Square Peg, a technology venture capital firm backed by James Packer, Seek co-founder Paul Bassat and the billionaire Liberman family.

In a confidential presentation, goCatch’s goal was simple: to capture a “dominant share” of the taxi market. It was a shot across the bow to incumbents. The company told investors: “goCatch is breaking apart the Cabcharge network model and redefining how the industry works.”

SMART COMPANY | MONDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2014 1:33

A taxi booking app backed by the likes of Paul Bassat and James Packer has raised around $5 million over the weekend in a bid to further disrupt Australia’s $5.4 billion taxi industry.

The goCatch app allows users to book nearby taxis and track their progress via GPS. Co-founder and chief executive Ned Moorfield told SmartCompany the latest equity round, which brought on a range of new shareholders, will help the business “get on with scaling up in a much bigger way”.

“The funds will be very much constructed on the growth of the business, building up our marketing capabilities,” he says.

BUSINESS REVIEW WEEKLY | PUBLISHED 09 APRIL

The NSW government will allow consumers to use mobile applications such as Uber, goCatch and ingogo to book taxis for the first time under proposed changes to the state’s taxi laws.

State Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian says changes to passenger transport laws to be introduced in state Parliament this year would remove the legal grey area which third-party booking apps have been operating under to date. “We have already seen how real-time information on mobile phone apps has completely changed the ­customer experience on other modes of public transport, and it is time to modernise this out-dated taxi-booking process,” she says in a statement.

WHATECH | TUESDAY, 01 APRIL 2014 16:53

Market leading taxi booking app, goCatch, is now providing Australian taxi passengers with greater certainty about when they can expect their next cab to arrive.

A technological, algorithmic breakthrough has allowed their software developers to build a colour coded alert system for passengers, which accurately predicts the relative busy-ness at the time they’re booking a taxi.

goCatch is a multi-award winning free smartphone application that connects passengers directly with taxi drivers allowing customers to book and pay for a cab with ease and certainty every time.